Anonymous distances itself from operating system bearing its name

Hacktivist group Anonymous has moved to distance itself from an operating system that has been downloaded more than 37,000 times that purports to have been developed by the group.

Hosted on the Source Forge site, the owners of the system claim it is an "Ubuntu-based distribution and created for educational purposes, to checking the security of web pages".

However, in a message on the group's Twitter page it said it had nothing to do with the system and that was "fake" that was "wrapped in Trojans".

The Anon OS is fake it is wrapped in trojans. RT

— AnonOps (@anonops) March 15, 2012

Security researcher Graham Cluley from Sophos said in a blog post that those that had already downloaded the operating system had taken a big risk and could well find their devices infected with malicious software.

"Why would anyone want to put their trust in a piece of unknown software, written by unknown people, promoted on an Anonymous Tumblr webpage that you don't know is safe or not?," he said.

"Anonymous OS isn't a threat to the average guy in the street or to office workers, the only people who might be impacted by it are those who are foolish enough to knowingly install unknown software onto their computers. Nevertheless, our advice to folks is clear - be wary."

Anonymous has been highly-active in recent week since the FBI took down several members of LulzSec, having turned the leader Sabu into an informant, attacking sites such as the Vatican, and suppliers of equipment to the police.